Our Director of Wishgranting Joanne Micklewright has been working for Make-A-Wish UK for the past 13 years. Here she talks about how times have changed over the years, why wishes are so important and our focus on granting the unique, one true wish of each child that turns to us.

WHAT MAIN CHANGES HAVE YOU SEEN OVER THAT TIME?

When I started here, Make-A-Wish UK was really quite a cottage industry kind of a charity. There were challenges, for example the year we had 10k in the bank and couldn’t pay people’s wages for half a month.

Technology back in the day meant that we were reliant on volunteers using their local networks and we were literally flicking through the yellow pages to do our research.

I also think that the illness spectrum that we’ve experienced over the years has changed. For example, there used to be a lot of children who had a particular type of kidney disease that affected them from birth. But medical advances have meant that is no longer a life-threatening condition.

The mix of wishes has also changed significantly. Today our emphasis is very much on unique, personalised wishes and on enhancing the anticipation of that magical day.